Ketlen Vieira

ANALYSIS
Vieira was able to get by Holly Holm by split decision the last time she was in the Octagon on May 21. That came after she beat another former UFC champ in Miesha Tate in November of 2021. Pennington has won her last four bouts with the most recent coming against Aspen Ladd in April.

ANALYSIS
Vieira has now defeated former UFC champions -- Holm and Miesha Tate -- in back-to-back fights. Ketlen easily won the Tate fight, but this one was far more questionable. To Vieira's credit, she performed well considering she entered as a +185 underdog. She landed the harder and more consistent shots on the feet throughout the course of the fight. Ketlen's major issue was that she spent more than two full rounds being controlled by Holm in the clinch along the fence. She didn't absorb a ton of damage in those instances, but it limited her ability to generate offense and should have theoretically cost her the rounds as a result. All in all, Vieira was quite lucky to emerge with a win here, as it seemed as if judge Sal D'Amato's 48-47 score in favor of Holm was the correct one. There were rumblings that the victor here could potentially be next in line for the winner of the upcoming title rematch between Julianna Pena and Amanda Nunes, but it would be awfully hard to give Ketlen the shot following this result.

ANALYSIS
Vieira has alternated wins and losses over her last five fights, most recently beating Miesha Tate across five rounds by unanimous decision in November. Holm is riding a streak of two straight losses but hasn't fought since October of 2020.

ANALYSIS
It was the biggest victory of Vieira's career and the correct decision, even if there was little separating the two women. Vieira did quite well in what was primarily a kickboxing match. She allowed Tate to lead most of the striking exchanges and responded by countering her to death. Vieira also did a nice job of remaining upright, allowing Tate just a single takedown in Round 4. While the striking numbers between the two women were even, it was Vieira who landed the more powerful shots. That was enough to ultimately earn the decision. The Brazilian has real skills in the stand-up, but as Daniel Cormier correctly pointed out on the broadcast, she appears to lack the confidence to let her hands go on a consistent basis. She won this fight regardless, but Vieira would have a much higher ceiling if she was willing to do so. Vieira has shown more good than bad with the UFC, winning six of her first eight bouts with the company, but she's 2-2 in her past four fights dating back to December 2019, and her significant rise up the rankings is primarily due to the lack of depth in the division, as opposed to consistent high-level performances inside the Octagon.

ANALYSIS
This fight was originally supposed to take place on Oct. 16, but it was pushed back a month to allow Miesha Tate recover from a positive COVID-19 test. Vieira was last in the Octagon back in February when she lost by unanimous decision to Yana Kunitskaya.